Social Currency: These are some of the badges that students can earn during the course for certain elective activities.

The main aim of the course is to provide students with an understanding of how the development of internet technology over the last decade has fundamentally changed consumer behavior and what these changes mean for brands and marketers.

A more general aim is to de-mystify the phenomenon of internet marketing/branding by providing concrete examples of how brands are successfully adapting to the new global marketing landscape. The course bridges new media and traditional principles of marketing and branding. Models are introduced to provide students with a framework that they can use to incorporate online tactics into their marketing strategies.

Students who take this course develop a hands-on approach to the internet and learn how to use online resources to solve marketing problems and build brand equity. These goals are achieved with an “action-learning” approach, in which students work on live projects and engage with industry professionals who will give them “real” cases to solve.

Develop a conceptual orientation toward internet marketing and online branding. The course provides students with perspective over a discipline that is currently in a state of rapid flux. Understanding the big picture of brand management and online marketing helps students deal with change in a more efficient and effective manner.

Develop practical skills within the field. We enable students to strategically plan, set up, manage, measure and monitor online owned assets such as websites, blogs, forums and campaign sites as well as use 3d-party platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for marketing purposes.

Develop analytical skills within the field. Students apply key concepts, models and techniques to their projects as well as orally in case discussions and in written papers.

Course content

1) Traditional marketing vis-à-vis internet marketing: What has changed? What is the same? What is the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0? What impact does the evolution of the internet have for marketers and consumers?

2) Social media mix: What are the different types of online resources and tactics successfully employed by brands today? What process can be applied to marketing online? What is a content strategy?

3) Branding on the internet: What has the loss of media monopoly and anonymity meant for brands? How has that development made the “back to basics” approach to branding more useful than ever?

4) Consumer behavior on the internet: How has internet technology changed consumers? What new possibilities has the omnipresent measurability of the medium created for marketing research?

5) Ethical issues in internet marketing: Does the fact that it has become easier to violate copyright law on the internet make it any less wrong? What are social media guidelines? Who controls the brand in an online environment?

6) How to make internet work: How does one plan and implement marketing campaigns on the internet?

his course was originally designed for The Lund University School of Economics and Management in cooperation with Dr. Veronika Tarnovskaya PhD. Today the course is offered at the University as a masters level course and a compulsory/elective part of the masters programme, Globalization, brands and consumption. It can also be an elective course in Business Administration at the masters level.